In what amounts to another slap in the face for British Airways Executive Club Gold card holders, British Airways announced yesterday that the First Class lounge at Gatwick Airport will now be closing from 3pm daily.
The rationale for this is that this is the departure time for the last flight of the day which has a First Class cabin.
Gold card holders will need to use the Terraces lounge next door from 3pm. BA has said that additional seating will be installed in the lounge, although that will be ‘at a later date’ and not in time for the introduction of 3pm closing on April 13th.
As a very marginal piece of compensation, sandwiches will be made available until 8pm in the Terraces lounges. Apparently they are now removed at 6pm leaving no fresh food at all. Bacons rolls will also be available until 9.30am.
In theory, you may expect me to be annoyed by this. However, as I wrote last year when I was in the First Class lounge at Gatwick, it is a complete dump. On that occasion I walked out and used my Priority Pass to visit the No 1 Traveller lounge downstairs, which is an oasis by contrast. Some photos from No 1 Traveller at Gatwick North are in this article.
There is also a rumour going around on Flyertalk that the First lounge at Gatwick will be closed entirely in November 2015. In November 2016, British Airways will move to the South Terminal and that will have only one lounge with no dedicated First / Gold facility at all.
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90 minutes on hold to BA and still waiting. Its good to see BA have geared up for the calls. Perhaps an email to their customers explaining what was going on might have been a good idea!
Unless you need to book something today, I would leave it. It will sort itself out in 2-3 days.
That’s the impression I got from the ba agent too. She told me they had to put a “request” through to their fraud team to unlock.
Can’t be bothered sorting Iberia tho – which also seems to be affected!
IB just wants you to change your PIN. 20 seconds to do it, then immediate access.
There is quite a lot of discussion on internet about the BA points situation. This article seems most informative.
http://thepointsguy.com/2015/03/has-your-british-airways-avios-account-been-hacked/
+1
That’s me locked out of my account too! The BA app suggests all is normal, but reset password via website and email shows zero avios!
This is BA securing accounts accessed by award wallet I reckon. Can anyone access their Iberia accounts ok? Or Avios accounts?
The reason I think it’s related to award wallet is my account is linked, but I only had 10k in points in it. My partners BA account has 140k, but isn’t accessed via award wallet.
I have a quick q:
For those who have had their balance zeroed, are you using a PIN or password on the BA website?
I know 70% of people use a password, and I was just wondering whether it was BA’s attempt to make the remaining 30% change to a password…
Passwords here.
If they wanted to stop people using PINs, this would be a very odd way to go about it.
I haven’t had my balance zeroed, just can’t log in. Password is not recognised. Can’t get a reset link, either.
Award wallet was showing problems logging into my IB account, so I went to their website, where I was asked to change my PIN. So I did and it worked fine. BAEC is just having a mare and not communicating.
OT- just landed in Istanbul.. Worst BA flight I’ve ever been on. Hardly any drinks etc served throughout (I had one apple juice)
No in flight entertainment because the system was broken. Since when do they not even give a cushion? (I flew economy baring in mind but even still)
BA are turning into an over priced easyJet
Press the call bell, or get up and go to the galley. Never any point in sitting waiting.
Worth a line to Customer services….
I thought this post was about the closure of the First lounge at 15.00?
It is speculation as to what BA May decide to provide when they move to the South Terminal….
Though I would agree that it doesn’t appear likely that a First longe will be provided.
Dump or not, it was often a fairly quiet haven with nice fizz before an evening flight.
This rolls on from all the other enhancements for premium flyers, too.
I had my BAEC also locked but reset the password and now avios has returned. Before knowing my account was mocked yesterday, I did a MR transfer of 50,000 which has been deducted out my account but not showing yet in my BAEC. Any ideas on how I can get this or who I should contact?
Back to lounges, I’m sitting in the very nice Plaza Premium lounge in T2. Very nice environment, wide selection of food, drink and seats! This and other major airline lounges reinforces to me what a let down BA lounges are (unless all you are planning is to get drunk, BA lounges are well stocked for that).
Premium Plaza LHR T2 is a very nice lounge. Food and interior fitout is of a much higher quality than BA. Very usful for Aer Lingus and a certain low cost german airline!